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A promising way to store alternating electricity from renewable sources like wind and sun is to produce pure hydrogen via electrolysis and to use this hydrogen to synthesize liquid transportation fuels and chemicals. As presented in 2015, the Winddiesel project, carried out at Güssing, Austria, is a potential strategy to use surplus wind energy to produce hydrocarbon-based fuels, chemicals, and bio-waxes via water electrolysis and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS). By using Fischer-Tropsch (FT) diesel as a blending component with fossil diesel, a massive reduction of CO2 emissions within the transport sector can be achieved. The FT laboratory-scale plant at Güssing uses slurry reactor technology to produce hydrocarbons from biomass-derived syngas. A commercial biomass gasification plant using the dual fluidized bed technology produces the biomass-based syngas. To simulate the fluctuating hydrogen production from renewable energy sources, the load of the FT plant is varied from 70 to 150% of the standard base-load conditions. To gain comprehensive data concerning the plant performance under load-change conditions, experiments lasting 500 hours are performed with two different catalyst charges. First, a 500-hour experiment with base-load settings is carried out to obtain reference data. In the second experiment, load changes are performed using an equivalent catalyst charge. It was observed that, depending on the catalyst, almost equal results for product distribution and composition could be reached for base-load and load-change settings. Furthermore, catalytic attrition to fine particles (< 5 µm) was investigated. The amount of catalyst fines ranges from well below 20 up to 60 mg/kg of dry product wax. This means that 0.5 to 2wt.% of catalyst undergoes attrition to fines in one year., Proceedings of the 25th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 12-15 June 2017, Stockholm, Sweden, pp. 960-966

In the EU around 40% of bio-waste (organic fractions of municipal solid waste including food waste) still goes to landfills. In some Member States this waste is almost completely landfilled. An estimation is that about one-third of Europe`s 2020 targets for renewable energy in transport could be met by using biogas produced from bio-waste (including food waste), and around 2% of the EU`s overall renewable energy target could be met if all bio-waste were turned into energy.Modern and environmentally friendly waste management is still not introduced in many European cities and regions. This problem is tackled by the Bin2Grid project which promotes the “food waste to biomethane” concept in four large European cities in order to serve as flagship examples for other cities.The objective of the Bin2Grid project is to support biomethane production and its use in transport by using segregated food waste from the food and beverage industry, catering sector, and from households(MSW) as feedstock. Focus of the Bin2Grid project is on the development of value chain concepts for four European cities: Zagreb (Croatia), Skopje (Macedonia), Malaga (Spain), and Paris (France). The Bin2Grid project highlights the multiple environmental benefits of source-separate waste collection and conversion of that feedstock into biomethane, in comparison to other treatment methods (landfilling, incineration, MBT, composting). A Benchmark Tool was developed by the project and is presented in this paper., Proceedings of the 25th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 12-15 June 2017, Stockholm, Sweden, pp. 204-209

Biomass, especially chipped wood, is commonly used as a fuel for district heating in Austria. Between 2005 and 2013 the energetic end use for district heating from solid biomass increased from 10 PJ to 34 PJ. Especially in winter times the water content of the biomass fuel in district heating plants often reaches 50% or even more. Thus, the recovery of condensing heat from water vapour in the flue gases is necessary for reaching high energetic efficiencies. One possible technology is the open sorption process for the heat recovery from the flue gases. The construction of a test facility for an open sorption process and first experimental tests are discussed within this paper., Proceedings of the 25th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 12-15 June 2017, Stockholm, Sweden, pp. 648-652

In the future energy storage capacities will be needed within electrical power grids to balance seasonal fluctuations of energy production by volatile renewable energies and to integrate these renewables as good as possible. The amount of the probable requirement for such energy storage capabilities is quite unclear. On the other hand, there is a massive demand for the generation of biofuels in transport sector for which energy storage technologies using electricity from the power grid can be applied. Power to Gas facilities were suggested for that purpose, but they have some drawbacks that could be avoided by the alternative Winddiesel technology. A project in Güssing is investigating if these possible advantages of the Winddiesel concept can be brought into practice., Proceedings of the 23rd European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 1-4 June 2015, Vienna, Austria, pp. 1770-1773

The CoolHeating project promoted the implementation of "small modular renewable heating and cooling grids" for communities in South-Eastern Europe. The objective of CoolHeating was to support the implementation of "small modular renewable heating and cooling grids" for communities in South-Eastern Europe. CoolHeating transferred knowledge from partners in countries where renewable district heating and cooling examples exist (Austria, Denmark, Germany) to countries where there are less examples in the sector (Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina). Core activities, besides techno-economical assessments, included measures to stimulate the interest of communities and citizens to set-up renewable district heating systems as well as the capacity building about financing and business models. The outcome was the initiation of new small renewable district heating and cooling grids in 5 target communities up to the investment stage., Proceedings of the 27th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 27-30 May 2019, Lisbon, Portugal, pp. 1762-1764

Small modular district heating/cooling grids can be fed by different heat sources, including solar collectors, biomass systems and surplus heat sources (e.g. heat from industrial processes or biogas plants that is not yet used). Especially the combination of solar heating and biomass heating is a very promising strategy for smaller rural communities due to its contribution to security of supply, price stability, local economic development, local employment, etc. On the one hand, solar heating requires no fuel and on the other hand biomass heating can store energy and release it during winter when there is less solar heat available. Thereby, heat storage (buffer tanks for short-term storage and seasonal tanks/basins for long-term storage) needs to be integrated. With increasing shares of fluctuating renewable electricity production (PV, wind), the Power-to-Heat conversion through heat pumps can furthermore help to balance the power grid. The objective of the CoolHeating project, funded by the EU’s Horizon2020 programme, is to support the implementation of "small modular renewable heating and cooling grids" for communities in South-Eastern Europe., Proceedings of the 25th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 12-15 June 2017, Stockholm, Sweden, pp. 1896-1898